Episode 1515 (9 October 1997)
Synopsis The police set up telephone monitoring equipment in the Jacksons' kitchen. Carol now realises she was stupid to refuse the police offer to move to a safe house, and she's wandering around snivelling and being pathetic. Bianca phones and they tell her to keep off the phone line in case the kidnappers try to call. Barry then phones as Robbie hasn't bothered to go to work or to tell him that he's not turning up today. Alan answers, and Barry is annoyed and asks where the hell his son is. Alan thinks he's sick and puts the phone down. Carol explains to the police that it's Robbie's boss wondering why he's not at work. Rumours start as Nigel was at school and someone he spoke to saw the kidnap, and he tells Lorraine. However, the police have called a press conference and started a news blackout. Polly wants to investigate but the police tell her it's a news blackout and they'll take a dim view if anything is reported even in a local paper. She goes back to Max and asks about it, and Tony is amazed that such a thing exists and says surely coverage will help find him. Max tells him that they only report the news, they can't usually change the course of events. Barry is in a bad mood because it's approaching deadline time and he has until the end of the week to repay the money. Joe buys Sarah a tacky £4.99 ring from a market stall as an engagement ring and they inform Irene of their intentions. She immediately assumes Sarah is pregnant, but Sarah insists that they don't sleep together. Irene can't understand why not, and wonders how a young man like Joe puts up with it, and says so when they're discussing it in the Vic with Lorraine. Lorraine thinks they are too young at 17, and Irene thinks they should bed down together for a few months to see if they are physically compatible, and that it's naive to marry without doing so. Mary sees the families "celebrating" and asks Lorraine at the bar what's happened. Lorraine tells her and Mary is upset that her little plan to split them up has backfired so dramatically. Irene tells Tony and says that Sarah is too young to get "trapped," but OTOH if he announced he was getting engaged to Polly she'd be thrilled. The police haven't had much success looking for the kidnappers, and there are few witnesses, even though the place was crowded with people. So, they suggest Carol go public but not to mention the word "kidnap" when appealing for more witnesses or anyone who knows anything to contact the police. Tony hears the news about the press conference, and happens to see Bianca almost immediately, so he tells her to watch TV as her mother's going to be on. She goes home to watch it, and Diane comes in from work unexpectedly. She says she "jacked it in" because a customer was rude to her so she was rude back and when the manager came over she told him where to stick his job. Bianca starts to argue with her but Ricky shuts them up by saying that Carol will be on TV soon. Everyone watches Carol waffle on about how she's missing Billy, etc. Credits Main cast *Carol Jackson - Lindsey Coulson *Bianca Butcher - Patsy Palmer *Barry Evans - Shaun Williamson *Alan Jackson - Howard Antony *Nigel Bates - Paul Bradley *Lorraine Wicks - Jacqueline Leonard *Polly Becker - Victoria Gould *Max Townsend - Alan Hunter *Tony Hills - Mark Homer *Joe Wicks - Paul Nicholls *Sarah Hills - Daniela Denby-Ashe *Irene Hills - Roberta Taylor *Ricky Butcher - Sid Owen *Mary Flaherty - Melanie Clark Pullen *Diane Butcher - Sophie Lawrence Notes Category:Episode Category:1997 Episodes